A month ago I posted about Invisible Women, and suggested changing the cover of my book The Medieval Longsword to make it more inclusive, and especially to make it clear that women can and should practice the art of arms if they so wish.
Shortly after that the socialz exploded with backlash against the dimwitted Andrew Klavan suggesting in his review of the tv show Witcher that ‘women can't fight with swords'. Yes, he's a moron and safely ignored, but it goes to show that the idea that women can't fight with swords remains plausible to many people.
So, here's the first draft of the new cover, with Kimberleigh Roseblade (photographed by Kristin Reimer of Photomuse) holding a sword in defiance of the Klavans of this world:
What do you think? Let me know if you have any suggestions on improving it in the comments on this blog, or contact me directly.
I'm planning to update the cover of Advanced Longsword too, but one thing at a time!
My next longsword book is with the editor at the moment. Currently titled The Longsword of Fiore dei Liberi, it's my transcription, translation, and commentary on all the longsword plays on foot out of armour from Il Fior di Battaglia. It includes video clips of my interpretation of all of those plays, starting from drawing the sword, and ending just after the zogho stretto section. The Medieval Longsword is a training manual, which teaches you how to use the sword. This new book is more of a description of what Fiore's plays are and how they fit together. In a sane world this book would have preceded the others, but to be honest the idea for it didn't occur to me until about 16 months ago!
I'm not happy with the title though. I need something that may attract readers who don't know who Fiore was. I'm thinking of something along the lines of Medieval Italian Swordsmanship: The Longsword Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi
What do you think? Do you have any better ideas for the title? You can let me know in the comments on this blog, or or contact me directly.
As always, feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested.
3 Responses
Just a quick suggestion :how do you feel about putting on the background a plate of Fiore?
I will be perfectly honest, and I hope this will be taken as a critique, not as a siding with any extreme (is there anything else these days) of the present political spectrum you touched upon in the very first paragraph.
The Medieval Longsword is a book title that suggest historical research on either sword itself or, as we know yours does, its usage. I think it wasn’t written in ”defiance of the Klavans” but in an attempt to reconstruct a century old art from (a) contemporary manuscript/s and aid the practitioners.
If I didn’t know who Guy Windsor was or what the book was about I wouldn’t pick up this book, or expect any kind of reliable historical info there. The cover is of a tattooed, pierced, generic fantasy costume wearing, makeup heavy woman, in which the woman part is the least relevant. It looks like a LARP guide or D&D book on weapon types, not the cover of what is a precious study on Medieval Longsword.
I am sorry, and I do hope this aids the selling in places where identification with and pandering to are a necessity for even buying or getting into something, but I think your book and the quality level of this research deserve something more serious.
Something for ‘grown ups’, emotionally speaking.
All best
It’s a really cool, beautiful picture! But after that, my first association was that it looked a bit fantasy-ish.
Besides that, I don’t mind her tatoos or piercings at all, but I think a picture with her that has more hema connotations would be better for this book cover.
I’m convinced that it is a very good idea on all levels to put a woman on the cover for the reasons you stated.
For the layout; I first thought that the picture was cropped and tried to see the bottom part… maybe in book form this isn’t a problem, but I think it might look better if her ellbow is in the picture as well with a bit of a margin below it.